School Fights Brewing

The P-C is reporting that the Iowa City School District, if they haven't reached their 'enrollment triggers' to start building a third comprehensive high school in the area are on track to do so in a couple of years if not sooner. This, of course, has re-ignited (I don't actually know if it's ever been extinguished) the debate over just how, if and where a third high school should be built.

Whether this is an actual debate or just something that consumes the comment trolls on the P-C website, it seems to have evolved into two 'camps.'

The first would like a new eastside elementary and to divert money that's supposed to be saved for a new high school towards capital improvements at eastside elementaries. (Change.org petition: here.)

The second would like a third high school somewhere in the North Coridoor as soon as possible. (Change.org petition: here.)

And there are a variety of opinions floating around that go from making City High a 'magnet' school to boost voluntary enrollment to just making the new Kirkwood Center (coming to Oakdale, I guess) a kind of technical 'third' high school and going from there.

Problem is, from what I can see, both sides have a lot of merit and there are some interesting ideas floating around out there that are definately worth exploring. I am in favor of a new Eastside Elementary. I think it would help enrollment over here and spur development either to the east of Scott Boulevard or to the north of Rochester Avenue along Scott. Either place would be an awesome site for a new elementary and preserve the tradition of neighborhood schools in the east side.

But, I also think we're rapidly reaching the point where a third high school is inevitable if not desirable. West High is bursting at the seams and it would take much in the way boundary tweaking (at least I think so) to get City High up to much the same level, percentage wise. The growth is accelerating along the North Coridoor so a new high school either between North Liberty and Coralville (along Dubuque St) or perhaps balanced between Coralville, North Liberty and Tiffin (along Forevergreen Road or Jones Boulevard) seems to be the right direction to move in.

I'm a big fan of the Kirkwood Center becoming a sort of 'technical high school' if you like over time- I think the School District should start to be proactive in giving it's students robust technical educations- especially since a hefty chunk of them either aren't bound for college or probably shouldn't go to college. Let's be a leader in technical and vocational education- I'm a fan of that.

Making City High a 'magnet school' to boost voluntary enrollment? Hmmm... a magnet school for what, though? I know Des Moines has an International Baccalureate School which, given Iowa City's international community thanks to the University would make sense to explore but by and large, I think City High should be left alone.

In the meantime, everyone needs to take a breath and realize that there's no such thing as one right answer to these questions. To me, it's a question of what to tackle first and right now, I would come down towards tackling a new eastside elementary now and ramping up preparation (including land planning, etc) for a third high school to get going by 2015-2017 or so- since we sort of need both.

So the comment trolls on the P-C should take a breath and start actually building the consensus they claim to represent instead of tearing it down.